Lesson No. 25: The Hedgehog Concept

I didn’t purpose to be in the space that I
find myself in – Founder & CEO, Passionate Entrepreneur, EQ Fanatic
and OWIT Nairobi President. God plucked
me from the path that I had set out for myself & set me on an alternative
journey. At the start it all appeared somewhat ‘accidental’ but I know now that
it was no accident, rather His design, His purpose for my life…

So now that I am here, these are my
confessions…the lessons I am learning about being a woman in business, building
an empire, one brick at a time…

Lesson No. 25: The Hedgehog Concept

“Nothing can add more power to your
life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.”
-Nido Qubein

I recently got a call from a client
asking me if I could provide a particular service. Awesome, I hear you say. Well, not really. I found myself in a
quandary. The service they asked for was not my area of expertise. Could I do it – well probably, but the
question was, could I do it well?

The temptation was to say yes, of
course I can. And then figure out
exactly how. Information is so readily
available nowadays. Surely, I could
conduct some research, put together the necessary curricula and provide the
training that they needed. Conducting
the training myself would mean additional income. It would also mean that that my client
wouldn’t have to talk to an alternative training provider who may ultimately
try to lure him away.

On the other hand, was giving my
client less than the best really the best idea? Whilst I may be able to provide
something good, it wouldn’t be my best. I wouldn’t be passionate and excited
about it. If I referred my client to a subject matter expert, they would get
training from a practitioner whose training programme was not based on
information found on the internet but real life experience.

After much deliberation, I came to the
conclusion that our relationship was based on the premise of service excellence
and that was something I was not willing to sabotage. I introduced my client to
a trainer I had seen in action previously, someone I knew would do an awesome
job.

An alternative would be to take on the
assignment and then partner with someone, an expert in that particular field,
who could complete it. The problem with that option is that of dilution. If you
have positioned yourself as a provider of a niche service or an expert in your
chosen field – taking on assignments outside of that would only dilute your brand.

In his book, “Good To Great,” Jim
Collins uses the parable of a fox and a
hedgehog to highlight the importance of focus. The story is derived from an
ancient Greek poem believed to have been written by Archilochus. In it, a
cunning and brilliant fox grasps the complexity of the woodlands around him. He
sets his mind on eating a hedgehog, and spends hours plotting the perfect
attack.

The hedgehog on the other hand, is
described as simplistic and somewhat dowdy.
He goes about his business unaware. When the fox ambushes, the hedgehog
rolls himself into a spiny, impenetrable ball. Undeterred, the fox keeps re-strategizing,
but the pattern repeats itself over and over. “The fox knows many things, but
the hedgehog knows one big thing,” the poem famously concludes.

Collins calls this
the hedgehog concept – doing one thing and doing it well. The concept requires the intersection
of three key elements: Your passions, your skills and your economic engine.

In his study of 1,435 established companies to find
every “extraordinary case that made a leap from no-better-than-average results
to great results,” Collins found that all good-to-great leaders are hedgehogs. Moreover, the good to great companies, like
hedgehogs, know “one big thing” and stick to it. The comparison
companies, like foxes, know many things but lack consistency.

As a woman in business, it is very tempting to
try and be all things to all people. The problem with that strategy is that
ultimately you will become a jack of all trades and a master of none.